2/3/12

Ride In 2/3: Time to Make the Donuts

Another Friday and another #fridaycoffeeclub. A nice morning for a bike ride too. I think between the 6 or 7 of us who attended, there were a total of 19 bike blogs represented. A wordy bunch, but one that makes for good conversation, especially when freed from the digital limitations of 140 characters and unclear intonation. A great assemblage and one that I'm happy to attend.
But before coffee club was the biking and the biking was fine, in spite of a minor headwind and tires than are closer to flat than full (I'm staring a angstrom-brewery and our flagship (and only) beer will be called Flat Tire. Hope I don't get sued!). Paucity of cyclists out in the neighborhood, but I did see a guy that I sometimes see, so I suppose all's right with the world.
My brake adjustments have not resulted in less horrible noise-making. Perhaps I should clean them. Or the rims? I adjust them again.Or do all of those things? Or buy earplugs? There's a solution to this problem and one that requires only minimal effort, but I just haven't quite procrastinated enough, you know?
One of the members of the state security apparatus told me that I couldn't bike on E Street in front of the White House. He was polite about it, I guess. He told me I could bike on the sidewalk, which is even closer to the White House, which presumably is the thing he's trying to securitize (Blue Room credit default swaps?) but I sense a little bit of mission creep and maybe now the point is protect the street and ignore the actual building. I don't know. In any case, I rode on the sidewalk and it was fine. I remained on the sidewalk on 17th which IS A CRIME, but no one arrested me or anything. There's no way that a lot of the curb cuts in that area are ADA compliant. Or maybe the curb cuts are, but there's no way you can fit a wheelchair through the metal security poles (Straz Mieskaj?) beyond them.
I forewent pastry at Swings and I didn't eat breakfast at home. So, my ride to work after coffee was on a food empty stomach and I felt gassed riding up Wisconsin. But stuff happened before that, namely a cross-town trip accompanying (or accompanied by?) Lauren, down G street and through Foggy Bottom. G street is one-way, but it's punctuated with stop signs and traffic lights and parking garages and it's not an especially wide thoroughfare like L and M a little farther uptown. It could be a nice biking street, but it isn't, on account of all of the things I've described. It's takes you through the heart of George Washington University (not [Sacred] Heart of George Washington University, a fictitious weird paleo-conservative Catholic, super-patriotic amalgam), so one might think that this might abate traffic, but I guess not. Along the way, we talked about the bane of beer delivery trucks, which seem to be the most common lane blockers in the morning. Support local microbreweries and take a stand against bike blocking beer delivery trucks!
From G to 24, up Penn and onto M and it was all pretty straightforward and mostly easy, on account of some judicious jaywheeling. I turned onto Wisconsin and Lauren kept going down M and then it was slogging time for me. Mr Jelly Legs (me) bumbled his (my) way up Wisconsin (Wisconsin) Avenue and through Georgetown and Glover Park and Cathedral Heights.
If you need to buy foppish clothes (need might be the wrong word), you might want to check out Streets of Georgetown. I mean, really foppish. Comically foppish. Every day would be a Tweed Ride.If you need to buy comically bad Chinese food, Kitchen No.1 is still around.
And that's more or less everything I've deemed worth writing. Sure, I left about the part where I ninja-kicked those bank robbers and beat all those professional cyclists in a high-stakes game of cribbage, but I wouldn't want to bore you.

5 comments:

  1. someday you can serve your "Flat Tire" beer at my bar, "The Broken Spoke".

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  2. They have pastries at this Swings establishment? I am so there.

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  3. I mean to attend a #FridayCoffeeClub meetup, too, though this Friday I 1) am the only one in the office and 2) didn't actually bike to work.

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  4. I don't think New Belgium Brewing is owned by Specialized so you're probably safe with your beer name.

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  5. @Mike- Sounds like a plan. I bet we make all of the money.
    @ultrarunnergirl & @Jon- Next Friday we'll be there too.
    @Melanie Suzanne- That's a very good point. So long as I don't make a Rou-beer, I should be ok.

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